Posts Tagged Culinary Arts

Last night (3-27-09) we welcomed some of the area’s finest culinary schools and other members of the food community to the Eli’s Cheesecake Company Bakery to enjoy hors d’oervres prepared by some of the finest culinary students in the Chicagoland. We had a really great turn out with many people from varying interest areas. We were very thankful to have Wayne Johnson as our Emcee of the evening. The evening was full of wonderful food and great conversation among all who attended. Thanks to everyone that attended and we look forward to seeing you all next year!

Red Bud High School Culinary Arts Students Visit Eli’s Cheesecake Red Bull, Illinois is a town of 3,200 people that is 35 miles south of St. Louis and 325 miles southwest of Illinois.

In January, the Culinary Students at Red Bud High School came to Chicago and visited our bakery for lunch and a tour. We appreciate the insights by Matthew Mehring, a student at the High School and the following letter from Joyce Carnahan, the Culinary Arts Instructor.

On Thursday, November 17th, all of us at Eli’s Cheesecake were delighted to host the culinary students and their teachers from the Chicago Vocational Career Academy.

In Chicago, we take great pride in our Chicago made foods, restaurants and culinary education at the high school and college level. The future of all facets of our food industry is based on being able to recruit and retain bright young people for the future.

We congratulate the culinary educators at CVCA, Chef David Fuller and ETC Coordinators, Yvette Arnold and Yvonne Tate for their commitment to their students and to excellence in the food industry.

The students and staff from the culinary program at CVCA getting ready for their bakery tour.

Kim Reynolds, a senior at the Illinois Institute of Art in Pastry, and a pastry intern at Eli’s Cheesecake spoke with the students about her career in library services and then following her passion in baking and pastry.

Eli’s President, Marc Schulman, Eli’s Pastry Chef Intern Kim Reynolds, Eli’s Executive Vice President, Jolene Worthington, with Chef David Fuller of CVCA. Worthington is a Governing Board Member of the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago and Fuller is a graduate of that program.

At Eli’s, we are very proud of our partnership with the Education to Careers
Department of the Chicago Public Schools. Under the direction of Jill Wine
Banks, ETC is dedicated to helping prepare high school students for their lives
beyond the classroom by combining academic training with an introduction to the
business world with hands on training, internships and field trips.

Eli’s has partnered with the Illinois Restaurant Association Educational
Foundation (IRAEF) to host tours of Eli’s by the 27 high schools that provide
Culinary Arts Training.

Recently we were visited by the Culinary Arts Program at Simeon High School.
Simeon at 82nd and Vincennes is the newest Chicago Public High School opening
its $40 million campus in September of 2004. The Culinary Program is headed by
Loretta Johnson, who is assisted by Quenton Lee, the ETC Coordinator, and
Theresa Baker, the Schools to Careers Coordinator for the IRAEF.

This is an outstanding program with enthusiastic and dedicated students. A
number of these students will go to compete in the ProStart Invitational, which
combines a culinary competition, a knowledge bowl and a management competition.
There are tremendous career opportunities in the foodservice industry and these
students are getting a early first hand view of what opportunities exist in the
industry and its affiliated companies, like ours.